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Performance act on imperative need to transform ZBC into a genuine public broadcaster - MISA-Zimbabwe
June 01, 2009

On the 29th and 30th of May 2009, MISA-Zimbabwe organised a test run of a drama performance on the imperative need to transform Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) into a genuine public broadcaster, in Kwekwe and Gweru. An estimated 50 people attended the premier performance at the Rainbow Theatre and Gweru Theatre in Kwekwe and Gweru respectively.

The drama is an integral component of the campaign to ensure that the transformation of ZBC leads to the attainment of a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) which is independent from any interests, notably political and economic; accessible to all citizens, entailing that it should be affordable and should reach everybody within a country; provide programming that caters for diverse tastes and interests and pay particular attention to the promotion of local content and local languages; serve public interest, that is to say it should open the channels of communication to the public and provide cultural and educational enrichment among others.

The six-character cast titled Dzimbabwe chronicles how ZBC has been literally reduced to a political party public relations department which featured some political party sympathisers given a free rein to propagate political messages contrary to the need for the broadcaster to air the views of the public.

The humorous play features the following six characters; Professor Marashike (panel chairperson), Professor Mupererwi (panelist), Doctor Chiura (panelist), Doctor Mahoto (in attendance), Marcus (producer), Nicole (assistant producer).

Gweru, advocacy committee chairperson Zerrubabel Mudzingwa, defined the performance piece as, "a fine depiction of how ZBC has been behaving post the independence era against the aspirations and dreams which the people of Zimbabwe yearn to see being portrayed on television."

The sentiments were echoed by MISA-Zimbabwe's national Vice-chairperson Njabulo Ncube who argued that the people of Zimbabwe are the genuine stakeholders of ZBC and should have a say on the direction which the broadcaster should sail through. He castigated the levels of state interference on how the broadcaster operates and the continued imbalance of portal of different political parties in the country.

Ncube outlined that the performances held in Kwekwe and Gweru, were aimed at gathering the public responses on play.

The overall gist of the play captures how the four characters, Professors Marashike, Mupererwe and Doctors Chiura and Mahoto were given the latitude to bequeath themselves outright announce in defining who is a genuine Zimbabwean and who is not? The panel appears on the national television reciting tied and exhausted mantras of lampooning the then opposition, the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) and glorifying the hegemony of the ruling party Zanu PF before the establishment of the inclusive government as the 'super-patriots'. Those who do not fit in the 'defined' parameters of patriotism were caricatured as agents of western imperialism.

In the conclusive remarks, the drama group acknowledges the ray of hope brought by the inclusive government and maps the way forward by calling upon the broadcaster to be tolerant of divergent views and the need to end divisive polarisation both within the media and the nation at large.

In light of the responses from the public, MISA-Zimbabwe will soon take the play country wide to give the public a chance to engage with the artists on how best ZBC could be transformed from being a state broadcaster into a genuine public broadcaster.

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